There is no denying that Facebook Page is getting more popular among new business start-ups as their first penetration tool into internet business. Most starters go with Facebook Page instead of a website because it is free and easy to get started. The decision of employing Facebook as their main tool of online communications is mostly made plainly because they think many people are on Facebook these days, and it’s free to use.
If you are stumbling between creating a website or a Facebook page, or you are not sure whether a Facebook Page can satisfy your business and personal needs, read on for our comparison below.
1. Credibility
Facebook is free, everyone knows that. This also means that anyone can create a Facebook Page on Facebook easily with absolutely no commitment. It is good for people who just want to create a Page for fun, joke and sharing purposes.
For anyone who is serious about business like you, you won’t possess much credibility with only your Facebook Page is supporting your business entity. Your competitors or anyone can just simply go and create another page which uses the same name as yours and play a fool with your business.
Without commitment, your business shows no sincerity. When you only use Facebook for your business, it somehow shows that you are not being serious with your business, hence your credibility is also pretty low.
However, if you use a website for your business (provided you are not using free hosting and free website services), you show that you are really committed and truly investing into your business.
2. Control and Restriction
Despite the fact that Facebook is one of the most powerful website in the world, there are still restrictions and limitations. What you can do within your Facebook Page is ultimately controlled by Facebook themselves.
You can only post content that are abiding to Facebook restrictions and rules. You risk getting your account suspended should you be found spamming or posting anything that is against Facebook “rules”.
The visual you could control is also limited to only a Facebook Cover, your profile picture, Timeline and the side tabs. Your page template will look exactly the same old and boring style with millions of other Facebook pages out there, which offer no exclusivity or attractiveness.
On the other hand, you can control how you want to display your website and its content completely. Hire a website designer and you can basically present any content in any way you like.
Not only you have control over your content, you also have more control on the feedback and comments that you receive. People who left a feedback or review on your Facebook Page don’t necessary need to be your real customers who bought from you, they can be anyone. If you have a website, especially a ecommerce enabled site, you can limit your feedback and review system to those who actually bought from you before. This way, your feedback and profile is clean and less prone to abuse and blackmail.
3. Reachability
Facebook has over billions of users today. However, you must take into account that there are also a lot of inactive and fake accounts. Now, Facebook also control your message and content reach according to their “algorithm”.
If you are using Facebook Page, you should realize that your Page posts don’t reach out to all your fans, or the amount of people which get to see your post don’t match the number of your Page Likes. This is common as Facebook controls how many people and who will actually see your post with their algorithm.
This limits those users who are solely relying on Facebook Page interaction and not Facebook ads. You will struggle more because when you post content that are only focusing on your business, most probably you will get low interaction. Over time your message reach will get lower and lower then you end up spending more money in Facebook ads instead.
With a business website of your own and with proper SEO configurations, your content can reach out to more people and the world (even non-Facebook users!).
If you have being collecting emails from your visitors and have a lot of subscribers, you can blast out emails to them so that your message can reach all of them. In Facebook, you cannot send a message to your fans unless they have sent you a message first.
4. Audience and Presentation
Majority of active Facebook users are made up by youngsters. If your business’ offering is not targeting this segment, you may not receive good result from your Facebook Page. When you were asked to present your business entity, would you show your Facebook Page, or your website?
A well designed website is much more presentable than a well designed Facebook page. You should understand that first impression is important, so you shouldn’t settle for something that can mess it up.
5. Selling Your Products Online
If you build a ecommerce store, you can actually sell your products directly online. Let your customers add their favourite products to their cart, put items to their wish list, compare products etc. can all be done on your ecommerce website. There are also vendors which provide Facebook Store service, but it is always such a cliché. Facebook store should go hand in hand with your ecommerce website, operating by embedding itself into a tab in your Facebook Page can never drives much traffic into it.
6. Lifespan
If you hop onto other’s people boat, your life depends on them. If you build and sail your own boat, your life depends on yourself. So, in this case, if you rely on Facebook alone as your main online business profile, you depend on them to survive. If you look at the history of previous popular social networks like MySpace and Friendster, it didn’t end well. I’m not here to judge on Facebook’s future but what I’m trying to say is that you should be the one that control the future of your own business.
Your website will always be there as long as you continue to host it.
So, is Facebook bad for your business? No.
If you are serious about your business, you shouldn’t use Facebook Page as your main tool or main channel of communication. Your website should always be your main priority and you can treat your Facebook Page as a platform to interact with your customers or potential leads.
Haven’t got a website? You should get one today.
Sanz Teoh
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